Originally Posted by
LapLap
I do like the premise of this trip. A few years ago, when my kid was small and taking advantage of hotel offers and cheap fares wasn’t so enticing, rather than ignoring them I used up points and miles to send my parents off instead. Can’t think of a more rewarding way to have spent those resources. The travel was always extremely cheap (less than the cost of staying in a basic hostel) but the experience itself was anything but - most impressive outcome was getting the Grand Hotel in Stockholm for 5,000 IHG priority points a night. That’s a door that may have closed forever.
All I will advise you for your blog is to remember that many of the techniques and devices relevant today for savvy bargain travel will quickly become useless and outdated. Hotel programs that were once a fountain of opportunities and potential will dry up, while other, often unexpected, avenues can open up instead. Keeping up with everything enough to feed and maintain a relevant blog is going to be very difficult. Good luck, though.
That is one of my biggest concerns in starting this blog. Just in the past few years good redemptions are being harder to come by, especially as hotels and airlines devalue their points. There will always be those little tips and tricks to save money, but it is really a matter of identifying them.
Also the points travel blog space is very crowded, so I am hoping to figure out ways to differentiate myself from the massive points blogs that focus mainly on business/first flights. That is why I am trying to focus on getting the most value for my points rather than only redeeming for luxury trips. By value I do not mean the traditional cents per point valuation that sites like TPG and OMAAT use, as i feel like those are pretty flawed, because you have to take the cash value of a ticket as the actual intrinsic value. The problem I have with it is, that I don't value a first class flight at say $8,000 it isn't worth it. So I am trying to show how you can use points and money to pay the absolute least on a trip.
I feel like the desire for a cheap weekend getaway will never get old.